According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, dwelling approvals increased for the month of March in Victoria (26.8%), New South Wales (8.5%), Tasmania (5.8%) and Western Australia (3.4%) while South Australia (-22.5%) and Queensland (-15.0%) recorded decreases in seasonally adjusted terms.

In seasonally adjusted terms, approvals for private sector houses fell 0.8% in March with falls in Western Australia (-8.4%), New South Wales (-5.6%) and South Australia (-2.1%) while there were rises in Queensland (8.2%) and Victoria (3.7%).

The value of total building approved rose 20.8% in March in seasonally adjusted terms. The value of total residential building rose by 3.9% while non-residential building rose by 47.6%.

Widespread flooding in the eastern states, particularly Queensland, and other recent natural disasters have not adversely affected participation by providers in the Building Approvals collection or the quality of estimates in this release. However, these events may have had an impact on the number of approved dwellings and the value of approved work in March 2011.

Further information is available in Building Approvals, Australia (cat no. 8731.0) on the ABS website at www.abs.gov.au